Nobody
by Yuki Tsukihana
Summary: One day, Nobody calls on the phone, and makes Ran’s day just a little bit brighter.


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Disclaimer: Detective Conan property of Gosho Aoyama-sensei and his genius.

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Mouri Ran was having a normal day. This basically meant that she had woken up, cooked breakfast, woken her father up from his seat on the chair where he had fallen asleep due to excessive drinking, had gone to school, chatted with Sonoko (amongst other friends), had returned home to see her father watching one of Okino Youko's numerous shows, greeted Conan-kun when he came home, and had left again to gather dinner ingredients.

So, as Ran browsed the selection of fish in one store, her mind began to wander to other subjects that she usually thought of on a normal day, such as karate, the surprise birthday party that was being planned for one of her classmates, and a new purse she had seen in a magazine that looked oh-so-darling. And Shin'ichi. And where he was and what he was doing and when would he come back?

She was thinking about such items all the way back to the Detective Agency. When she popped into the office to announce her return, she was surprised to find that her father was nowhere in sight. A small note on the desk told her that Conan-kun was spending the night at Agasa-hakase's. Bringing the groceries up to the third floor, she quickly found out that he was taking a shower (the sound of running water doubled with horribly-sung Okino Youko songs sort of gave it away).

Ran had just put away the groceries and had begun to chop some vegetables when the phone rang. The house phone and the office phone were connected through a single line, which made it much easier to answer business calls when no one was physically in the office. Setting down her knife, she went to the other room to answer. "Hello, Mouri Detective Agency."

Silence greeted her. The buzz of a connected call was present, however, so the person on the other end was simply being quiet.

She tried again. "Hello?"

Still nothing.

One might think that waiting months on end for one Kudou Shin'ichi to return would have given Ran the patience of a saint. One would find themselves wrong in this aspect.

"Who is this?" she demanded, her tone of voice obviously giving away the fact that she was not one to mess with.

"Nobody," was the (somewhat amused) reply.

"Nobody? Listen, you…" She trailed off as the other's voice clicked in her head. "Shin'ichi! That's not a nice joke to play, you know."

"E-heh," Shin'ichi chuckled. "You caught me. Anyway, how have you been? I haven't been able to talk to you for a while…"

"I've been doing fine; just started making dinner, but don't worry!" she added quickly. "Nothing's actually cooking right now so you're not interrupting."

And that was how many of their conversations started.

The two (not-)couple talked for a bit about other normal things: the nice weather Japan was currently having, how Ran was doing in her studies as well as in karate, how all their classmates were doing. And so on and so on. In the background Ran was faintly aware that the singing had stopped as well as the water.

Then the topic of when Shin'ichi would return came up. And, like normal, he dodged the subject by saying that he had to hang up.

"At least tell me when you'll call again," Ran said.

Again, just like at the beginning of the phone call, there was silence, but the teenaged detective hadn't hung up yet. "I'm not sure…But I can promise you that nobody will call!" he finished brightly.

That left Ran stunned. "Nobody will…Shin'ichi, what do you mean?" She was a bit nervous and scared by the comment.

"I never exactly said I was Shin'ichi, did I?" Ran could practically hear the wink then.

Oh. She chuckled, and could hear a masculine echo of it on the other end. "Well, then. I look forward to your next call, Oh Nameless One." She heard the bathroom door open roughly about the same time Shin'ichi said his reply and finally hung up. Ran also returned the phone to the receiver.

"Who was that?" she heard her father ask. She turned around to find him toweling his hair dry, a second towel wrapped about his waist.

"Oh," she replied airily. "Nobody." She laughed silently at his expression as she returned to chopping vegetables in the kitchen.

Yup. Just another normal day.

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A/N: huhwha? 

I live! D:

and I'm writing more Detective Conan fanfiction!

this series eats your soul…but it's so worth it. come! join us! (though if you're reading this, you probably already have :P)

I dunno. I was sorta thinking Ulysses with this, where he introduces himself to the Cyclops as Nobody. (so Ran's a Cyclops? oO)

DC oneshots are fun! inspired by Candyland, Jeva, and sapphirestars, who write wonderful oneshots that everyone should go read.

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PS: ...in addition to asterisks, does ffnet now war against tildes and plus signs?

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